Description
By Josh Trought
Trade paperback book
ISBN 9781603584753
For almost twenty years, D Acres of New Hampshire has challenged and expanded the common definition of a farm. The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm describes the history of the D Acres project and its evolving principles and practices, which are rooted in the land, its inhabitants, and the joy inherent in collective empowerment.
An educational center that researches, applies, and teaches skills of sustainable living and small-scale organic farming, D Acres serves more than just a single function to its community. It is a hostel for travelers to Northern New England, a training center for everything from metal- and woodworking to cob building and seasonal cooking, a gathering place for music, poetry, joke-telling, and potluck meals, and much more.
The D Acres vision is to usher in a sustainable future by creating a rural community ecology that evolves in perpetuity. From working with oxen to working with a board of directors, no other book contains such a wealth of innovative ideas and ways to make your farm or homestead not only more sustainable, but more inclusive of, and beneficial to, the larger community.
- Readers will find information on such subjects as:
- Working with pigs to transform forested landscapes into arable land;
- Designing and building unique, multifunctional farm and community spaces using various techniques and materials;
- Creating and perpetuating diverse revenue streams to keep your farm organization solvent and resilient;
- Receiving maximum benefits and yields for the farm without denigrating resources or the regional ecology;
Implementing a fair and effective governance structure; - Constructing everything from solar dehydrators and cookers to treehouses and ponds; and,
- Connecting and partnering with the larger community beyond the farm.
Emphasizing collaboration, cooperation, and mutualism, this book promises to inspire a new generation of growers, builders, educators, artists, and dreamers who are seeking new and practical ways to address today’s problems on a community scale.
Praise for The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm
“As any good permaculture project should, this book stacks functions. It’s at once a chronicle of the reinvention of an old family property as a twenty-first-century enterprise, a first-hand guidebook for developing a successful community, and a useful how-to for ecological homesteading and farming. If you are doing and of those – or thinking about it – this book should be in your hands.”
-Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden
“Homesteading on a hamlet scale, teaching ecological design, building for the future, and creating new family and tribal binds in a time of dissolution, the D Acres vision sheds light on the uses of adversity to counter the centrifugal forces of our culture.”
-Peter Bane, author of The Permaculture Handbook
“At a crucial crossroads in our history, this book chronicles a life-giving response to a society bent on self-destruction. The journey presented here is inspired and instructive.”
-Jim Merkel, author of Radical Simplicity
“Josh Trought and company provide pure inspiration for learning essential earth skills. Pick up this book and you too can help people connect with the land and a sustainable way of living.”
-Michael Phillips, author of The Holistic Orchard
“What a broad-minded book and thorough record of achievement for a visionary farm enterprise that takes practical steps to counter the capitalist disaster – an inspiration for the next generation of growers.”
-Peter Schumann, founder of Bread and Puppet Theater
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